Medianoche IPA

Welcome back to a belated addition of CJ drinks beer then incoherently writes about it! As you voracious readers saw, Nerdy and I took Thanksgiving off. You see, I spent so much time planning and shopping for my holiday menu, I completely forgot to drink beer! Worry not my fermented friends, I made up for it during my four days off from work, and then some. For the first year ever, I am separated by 3,000 miles from family and friends for the sumptuous month of feasting that occurs from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and despite my mother’s best efforts, I will not be home for Christmas this year. However, as Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I still went all out culinarily, for the boyfriend and myself. I sampled several recipes out of “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” and I highly recommend it! Samin is a fantastic chef, and seriously watch the Netflix special she did, it will change your relationship to the ingredients you use! Her buttermilk brined chicken was an absolute delight. Of course, the problem with making a whole feast for two, is you end up eating jalapeno poppers, spicy sausage stuffing, and green bean casserole for three days straight. Hmm, maybe not so much of a problem, the waistband on my pants may disagree though. I soothed my dyspeptic woes.

While Thanksgiving may be past, and Christmas weeks away, we have another fortuitous occasion to celebrate this Thirsty Thursday – The 86th anniversary of the full ratification of the 21st Amendment. The Cullen–Harrison Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22, 1933, authorized the sale of 3.2 percent beer and wine, which allowed the first legal beer sales since the Federal laws enforcing Prohibition were then repealed. Upon signing the legislation, Roosevelt made his famous remark, “I think this would be a good time for a beer. Oh you philandering boozer…

Following repeal, some states continued Prohibition within their own jurisdictions. For a time, 38% of Americans lived in areas with Prohibition. It actually took until 1966 for all 50 all states to officially repeal their statewide prohibition laws, with Mississippi bringing up the rear. Good Ole Miss, last in education, women’s reproductive rights (although Ohio is trying hard to win that trophy) healthcare, and obesity.

To celebrate the repeal of government overreach (relax I’m still a flaming liberal), I want to discuss a beer from one of my favorite breweries, Golden Road. GR is just to the northwest of LA, in unheard of Glendale CA. We always enjoy a visit to GR, their 30 odd tap list is varied and often showcases fruit-based beers, my favorite. The boyfriend has bought out cold cases of their Spicy Mango wheat ale tallboys on multiple occasions. And they had a sparkle beer. That’s right, a nice bright red passion fruit sour with actual edible glitter, brewed just for Pride Weekend! Fortunately, GR is quite ubiquitous in LA, every corner store carries at least a few varieties of their six-packs. Today’s beer was purchased at my local gas station, and it hadn’t been one I had tried while drinking on location: Medianoche IPA. I know what you’re thinking, IPA from CJ? Bear with me on this one.

Five years ago, I had the great fortune to travel to Costa Rica to stay with a friend. To date, CR has become of the best countries I have ever visited. The Ticans were so kind and friendly, the local cuisine delicious, the flora and fauna stunning. Did you know that CR has more species of hummingbird than any other country on the planet? There is a reason why CR is big on eco-tourism. I canoed down rainy jungle rivers, camped out in the rainforest, and drank copious amounts of coconut water (you have people who climb the tree just to retrieve your coconut, it’s wild!). All this to say that when I popped open Medianoche, I was instantly transported back to Parque Nacional Tortuguero, sipping a beer washed in sunset’s glow. Dulcet tones of macaws mixed with hoots of monkeys filled the air, caimans stealthily keeping watch at the water’s edge.

As I poured, the hazy golden straw color was reminiscent of a tropical sunset, just after a rainstorm. I enjoy a bit of cloudiness in my beer, it feels less processed to me. There was about two fingers worth of head after pouring, frothy whipped egg white sort of head, quite visually appealing. It reminded me of all the whipped boozy coconut drinks I consumed on my tropical vacation. The head dissipated quickly, though, possibly from the stuffy heat in my 5th-floor apartment. While the haze was a feast for the eyes, the aromas from this beer were a feast for the nose (not cocaine.) Fresh and juicy tropical fruits, lemon, apricot, passionfruit wafted up from the glass, like a bowl of fruit salad. To finish off, I detected notes of sweet toasted graham crackers. At this point, my mouth is watering from the memory of a fruit crème filled pastry I had at a roadside bakery on our drive to the Pacific. Unsurprisingly, the mouthfeel was on the fuller side, I find hazy beers tend to have this quality. The carbonation could have been a wee bit stronger, but that is my preference.

Now onto the tasting notes, my favorite part of course! And yours, how else will you know what the damn thing actually tastes like. The first sip begins with a sweet brightness tasting of passionfruit and apricot – two of my favorite fruits. I fucking love passionfruit, is there any drink or dessert that isn’t made better by the fantastic fruit? Add in a little mango twirling on your tastebuds, and you will be transported to a little roadside fruit market eating the freshest tropical delights CR has to offer. What a sweet and tarty treat (just like me). Oh, but this wild ride isn’t over yet! As you swallow the flavor notes morph from fruity to toasted biscuit, like a warm buttery pastry I got to sample at a panaderia on our way to jungle camping. The malted delight finished with a floral bitterness, but not too strong. I knew the IPA was in there somewhere! At 6.2%, go ahead and crack open one (or six which I didn’t drink in a row).

My overall impression is Medianoche is more malt-forward than I generally go for, but the slight astringency provided the perfect balance of sweet and bitter.

5/6 Palm Trees

Cheers Nerd Girls!